Category Archives: practicing gastronomy

Internship in Review: Nate Orsi’s Experience at the Cornell Food & Brand Lab

by Lucia Austria

I interviewed Gastronomy student Nate Orsi on his internship experience this past summer at the Cornell Food & Brand Lab in Ithaca, New York. His enthusiasm for the program promises fulfilling experiences for any BU Gastronome interested in applying next summer.

How did you feel when you first started the internship at Cornell? What were the other interns like?

Mindless Eating published by Bantam

It was an awesome experience, fueled by positive energy, people, and a bit of caffeine. It was almost like anything was possible within the realm of food research. Dr. Brian Wansink, the head of the Cornell Food and Brand Lab, has an electric personality. He is so passionate about life, and in particular food. His book, Mindless Eating, was the first thing we were told to read in preparation for the internship. Everyone is highly motivated and focused. When you are around people with such a zest for life, it makes you want to excel and explore that world that you are in, which happened to be the world of food. Kitchens and faux restaurants with mirrored glass, study sessions where food preferences were researched, and long hours contemplating how people perceive food were key ingredients to the overall process.

What kind of projects did you work on?

We were assigned to ongoing research projects and weekly tasks related to such topics as creating smarter lunch rooms, investigating obesity and eating disorders, or the effects of chefs cooking in schools. Other research topics included the tie between spirituality and eating meals, food fears, varying perceptions of taste in social settings, and farm to school research.

Nate Orsi

I worked on simultaneous projects for the Food & Brand Lab. To hone my writing skills, I was asked to condense an article written on the research potential of virtual reality environments and food. For another project, I canvassed people to gauge their perceptions of tastes of meat sandwiches. I conducted interviews and observed people eating food in public spaces and wrote about my findings. I also provided feedback to other interns and researchers on how to improve menu items for non-profit organizations. We all met together on a weekly basis for problem solving sessions, bounced ideas off of each other, really making progress with our projects.

Much of my work was focused on school gardens, food marketing, independent thinking on how to get kids to eat more sensibly during lunch, looking at kitchens from a historical perspective, and perceptions of caffeinated beverages.

I also helped launch a website which featured research on the process of naming vegetable dishes in school cafeterias. “Whats in a Name?” investigates how school lunch programs attempt to get students to eat more vegetables. Research revealed that by changing the names of vegetables, kids ate substantially more of them because it was more of an engaging and fun experience.

What was it like to live in Ithaca for the summer?

Ithaca has a great local food scene. It’s a pretty rad, earth friendly place, full of locavores, gorges, and friendly folks who are in tune with their surroundings and their food system. If you ever get the chance to experience Ithaca I would highly recommend Waffle Frolic, and the Ithaca Farmers Market is unreal.

Any words for students interested in applying to the internship?

Let me know if you get to Ithaca, because while it is a haul to get there, I promise you won’t regret it.

Nate Orsi is a Gastronomy student and member of the BU Gastronomy Garden Club. Read here for more information on the internship application process and deadline for the Cornell University Food & Brand Lab.

Wine and Dine, Medieval Islamic Style

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By Elizabeth Mindreau

Nawal Nasrallah adding pomegranate seeds to the chicken with sibagh sauce.
Photo credit Elizabeth Mindreau

The students of Kyri Claflin’s History of Food (ML622) class were treated to a lecture and cooking demonstration by scholar of Medieval Islamic cuisine and food writer, Nawal Nasrallah. Nawal discussed what historians consider the Golden Age of the Arab World, between the 8^th and 13^thcenturies. She described Baghdad as the center of the world during that period and made medieval Baghdad come alive with descriptions of a cosmopolitan city with a bounty of ingredients in its markets brought by the many caravans passing through. Baghdad was full of nouveaux-riches with a taste for fine cuisine and the means to buy it.

Nawal followed her lecture with a cooking demonstration using recipes from the 10^th century Baghdadi cookbook, Kitab al-Tabeekh by Ibn Sayyār al-Warrāq. She translated this medieval work under the title Annals of the Caliphs’ Kitchens. Using these age-old recipes, Nawal transformed simple shredded chicken into an aromatic delight by adding sibagh, a dipping sauce made from ground walnuts and pomegranate juice. Additionally, soy sauce was used to replace a medieval Arab condiment made of fermented barley known as murri. The chicken and sauce were blended together and presented on a platter sprinkled with fresh pomegranate seeds.

Nawal adding egg layer to the bazmaward.
Photo credit Elizabeth Mindreau

Nawal prepared a few other dishes, like bazmaward, a pinwheel-type sandwich of cheese, nuts, mushrooms, and eggs, and badhinjan mahshi, a dish of boiled and chopped eggplant mixed with caramelized onions, ground almonds, fresh cilantro, chives, parsley, caraway seeds, cinnamon, olive oil, vinegar, and soy sauce. By the end of her demonstration, our appetites were in high gear. We filled our plates and dug in. So what does food from 10^thcentury Baghdad taste like? The chicken and sibagh were bright and savory. The badhinjan mahshi was soft and succulent. The herbs in the bazmaward danced on my tongue while the finely minced ingredients of the sandwich melted in my mouth.

Recreating dishes from a medieval cookbook is an amazing way to immerse yourself into a sensory connection with the past. Of course, it can never be the same since the cooking environment, cooking technology, and taste of the raw ingredients (due environmental changes) are different. But, I believe that one can get close to the experience by physically recreating the movements that someone made so long ago to prepare the food and the final experience of tasting and eating it. It can bring us a new understanding of what life in the past may have been like in a very intimate way. It is also a thrill to taste flavor combinations that may not be available in the modern culinary arena.

Clockwise from top: zalabiya under a pita chip, pita chip, badhinjan mahshi, slice of bazmaward, chicken with sibagh, and another slice of bazmaward.
Photo Credit Elizabeth Mindreau

Nawal’s lecture made me appreciate the rich, noble, and lengthy history of Arabic cuisine as well as of the Arabic culture in general. I am discovering that learning topics through a food-centered lens is highly effective. Because food is deeply embedded in one’s daily life, it can be an excellent vehicle for transmitting knowledge. As we ate, Nawal discussed the challenges of translating Medieval Islamic cookbooks into English. She said that so much more work needs to be done, particularly with the cookbooks of Andalus, (Medieval Islamic Spain). More scholars, particularly with foreign language skills, are needed. Time to sign up for Arabic class!

Elizabeth Mindreau is a former graphic designer and first year Gastronomy student. When not studying, Elizabeth is busy trying to feed her two young sons anything but chicken nuggets and Oreos.

Today is Food Day

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by Lucia Austria

On October 22, Oxfam America hosted “Plenty for the Planet: Sustainable Food and a Well-Fed World.” Co-hosted by Corporate Accountability International (CAI) and Small Planet Institute, the focus of the night was to illuminate the injustices present in our global food system and to discuss possible strategies to create a better one for a growing planet.

Anna and Frances Lappé
photo credit Lucia Austria

Talk about heavy. I knew that as a Gastronomy student, three hours in a classroom is barely enough time to discuss such broad-scoped issues, so I was interested to see how the two-hour event would pan out. About 150 attendees gathered together at the City Year headquarters in Boston’s Back Bay to listen to presentations and discussions by sustainable food advocate Anna Lappé, author of Diet for a Small Planet, Frances Moore Lappé, manager of Oxfam America’s Strategic Alliance work Liz Carty, and campaign director of CAI Sara Deon. Oxfam America’s Campaign Director, Judy Beals, moderated the talk, and audience members listened while enjoying a vegetarian spread of appetizers sourced from local farms and vendors.

The presentations focused on what the panelists considered the biggest “food myth” about our global food system—big business agriculture as the only way to feed a growing global population. Anna presented studies from the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) that supported global organic agriculture, and played a video titled Food MythBusters that exposes the detriments of industrial agriculture. Frances echoed her daughter’s arguments and expressed the community benefits of organic agriculture by describing her most recent visit to an Indian village that was positively transformed by adopting sustainable agricultural practices.

I’m not a skeptic, just a critical graduate student, and though I whole-heartedly support Anna and Frances’ call-to-arms against big agriculture, I was looking for more. The Food MythBusters video is a great way to bring a once solely academic issue to the minds of all consumers, but the real question that begs to be addressed is not “Is the system broken?” because that’s quite clear, but “How can we fix it?” More specifically, how can we as every day consumers who understand these issues take actionable steps that allow us to be active agents of the food system, to be food citizens?

It was Liz Carty who addressed my questions. She explained Oxfam’s new campaign “GROW” that guides everyday people to contribute to the building of a more sustainable food system. The campaign’s slogan “Fight world hunger starting at your kitchen table,” may sound idealistic, but the explanation of “The Grow Method” combines tangible steps that a consumer can take to hopefully yield realistic outcomes. Reduce waste, support socially conscious companies, conserve energy, buy seasonal produce, eat less meat—I appreciate that these familiar ideas are grouped together in order to empower the individual or household.

CAI’s Sara Deon put into simple terms what I thought was the event’s true takeaway, “talk about food every day.” Chances are, the questions you might have about the food you eat are being asked by hundreds of other eaters, and have come together to discuss and find answers. From activist organizations focused on fair labor, to conferences and symposiums on culture and nutrition, to academic programs that take on the whole gamut—if you have a question about your food, rest assured, there’s a food movement for you to join.

Lucia Austria is a current Gastronomy graduate student at BU. Her research focuses include learning culture in restaurant and food manufacturing industries and ethnic foodways in the United States.

The Fight for Fair Food: Taranta’s Collaboration with CIW

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by Alex Galimberti

photo credit CIW

For over a year Taranta dedicated itself to learning and supporting what can be considered the most important element to creating a sustainable food system: ensuring good work conditions for our nation’s farmworkers. It all started during the Chef’s Collaborative Annual Summit that took place last September in New Orleans. There, the Taranta crew met Gerardo Reyes from the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW). Through the connection established with the CIW, Chef Jose Duarte, general manager Chris Titus, and I took a trip to Immokalee where we became aware of exploitative conditions and cases of modern day slavery in the tomato fields of Florida. By understanding the scale of the issues addressed by CIW’s Fair Food campaign, we realized that chefs and restaurant workers represent the final link connecting the food system from farmworker to consumer. Our position as restaurant professionals enables us to raise awareness to our consumers and also question the practices of large food producers.

Through the support of Star Chefs, Chef Duarte assembled a panel entitled “The Human Cost of Food.” Panelists included Gerardo Reyes, author of Tomatoland Barry Estabrook, and Chef Duarte. Together, they presented at the Starchefs International Chefs Congress in New York City. Discussed was CIW’s key strategy–requesting the largest tomato buyers in the country to sign into the Fair Food Agreement. Some of these buyers include Whole Foods Market, Trader Joes, Aramark, and Sodexo. These buyers promise exclusive purchasing from producers who are inspected and verified by an independent auditor. Approved producers comply with a basic set of standards, such as zero tolerance for physical abuse and sexual harassment of farmworkers, just to name a few.

panelists Chef Duarte, Gerardo Reyes, and Barry Estabrook

One of the main points of contention during the three-day congress was Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc.’s stance on the Fair Food Agreement. When the congress was held, Chipotle had not signed the agreement. The company’s research and development chefs Nate Appleman and Joel Holland debated with Reyes over the level of involvement of chefs with labor and human rights issues. Both sides left the congress with a wider scope of awareness of the variable viewpoints of industry chefs. This debate struck a chord with the Taranta crew, for sustainable food cannot exist without the fair treatment of farmworkers. On October 4^th, Chipotle chairman Steve Ellis signed the Fair Food Agreement with representatives from the CIW. The Taranta crew and I are happy that such an important company in our industry is now an ally in this cause. The battle is far from over, but we believe our efforts sharing this story with the chef community have paid off.

Alex is a Gastronomy graduate student. He is currently the Beverage Director and Chef Instructor at Taranta Restaurant, Boston. Read Alex’s complete post and learn more about Taranta’s visit to Imokalee here.

The Cookbook Project

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As part of our Practicing Gastronomy series, join us this Wednesday, November 30th, from 4:45-5:45 pm in Fuller 109 for a lecture and discussion with Cookbook Project founders Alyssa and Adam. Get to know this amazing duo and learn about their passion for sustainability, food justice, and food education! Plus, find out how you can get involved.

From their website:

“The Cookbook Project (CBP) is an international tax-exempt non-profit organization that combines youth education with Food Justice and the Slow Food Movement’s goals of providing access to fresh healthy whole foods while helping to preserve local food cultures. The organization facilitates food-oriented experiential education workshops in conjunction with non-profit youth organizations worldwide. These workshops focus on using food culture as a vehicle for educating youth experientially about the connection between food, the environment, health and wellness. Topics explored include local food culture, food geography, sustainable consumption, hygiene, and cooking skills. In addition to hosting youth education workshops CBP also train leaders of all ages around the world to be able to lead Cookbook Project Workshops where they live, work, and travel through a variety of programs.

The Cookbook Project sees food as universal, and a common ground for uniting humanity. Join us and learn how to eat fresh, cook local, be healthy, save the planet, and most importantly — play with your food!”

In addition to this workshop, Alyssa and Adam will be hosting a Creole Caribbean cooking class at The Cambridge Center for Adult Education on December 4th from 3-6pm. All proceeds from the class will go to support an upcoming workshop in Haiti, and Alyssa’s agreed to offer a discount to Gastronomy students ($50-75). For more information or to sign up, contact Alyssa and Adam through their website.

Allison Carroll Duffy’s Canning Workshop

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by Meg Jones Wall

On a freezing October night, while we slowly watched the cold rain turn into snow, a little group of food enthusiasts and Gastronomy students gathered with Allison Carroll Duffy to learn more about canning jellies, jams and marmalades. While some of us were canning for the first time and others were frequent jelly-makers, nobody knew more about the art of preserving food than Duffy, a Gastronomy program graduate and certified Master Food Preserver.

A teacher, writer and proud mother of two, Duffy’s sweet and nurturing personality suits her homey love of canning and preserving perfectly. After providing tons of useful tips and basic tricks of the art of preparing food for canning, as well as providing resources for future study and recipes (posted at the end of this entry), we were given the opportunity to create one of her own recipes: pear-ginger jam. We were put to work in the kitchen, peeling, chopping, mashing and cooking, following the simple recipe from start to finish. And as someone who had absolutely no experience with canning, this workshop proved to me that it’s not nearly as complicated or challenging as it first appears.

Even if you’re like me and have never tried creating jam before, give this recipe a shot. The equipment is inexpensive and there are many kits available to get you started, including the Ball Utensil Kit and canning pot with rack, both recommended and used by Duffy.

Pear-Ginger Jam, from Allison Carroll Duffy
Makes 8-10 half-pint jars

Note: this recipe requires 1 package of Pomona’s Universal Pectin, available at Whole Foods and other natural food stores. The pectin box will contain two packets – one packet containing tan-colored pectin powder, and one smaller packet of white-colored calcium powder. For the ingredients listed below, follow the directions contained within the box.

Before beginning, wash and rinse pint jars, lids, and screw bands. Set screw bands aside until ready to use. Place jars in hot water bath canner, fill at least 2/3 of the way full with water, and bring to a boil. Sterilize jars for 10 minutes, then turn down heat and let jars stand in hot water until ready to use. Place lids in water in a small pan, bring to a low simmer, and hold there until ready to use.

Ingredients:
8 cups ripe pears, peeled, cored and mashed
2 tbsp grated ginger root
1/2 cup bottled lemon juice
2 tbsp plus 2 tsp Pomona’s Calcium water
2 1/2 cups sugar
2 tbsp Pomona’s Pectin powder

In a large sauce pan, combine mashed pears with grated ginger, lemon juice and calcium water. In a separate bowl, combine sugar and pectin powder. Bring pear mixture to a boil, then add sugar mixture and stir vigorously for 1-2 minutes to dissolve the pectin. Allow mixture to come back to a boil, then remove from heat.

Remove hot jars from canner and fill jars with jam, leaving 1/4 inch of headspace. Remove trapped air bubbles, wipe rims with a damp cloth, and put on lids and screw bands finger-tight. Place jars back in the canner, cover with lid, return to a rolling boil, and boil for 10 minutes. (Add 1 minute additional processing time for every 1000 feet above sea level.) Turn off heat and allow canner and jars to sit for 5 minutes. Then remove jars from canner and allow to cool undisturbed for 12-24 hours. Confirm that jars have sealed before storing in a cool, dry place.

Sealed jars have a shelf life of 1 year, and once opened, jam should last for about 2 weeks, refrigerated.

Want even more? Check out Duffy’s website, CanningCraft, filled with tips, recipes and ideas, and explore some of her favorite links on home canning and food preservation.
Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving
So Easy to Preserve
National Center for Home Food Preservation
USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning

Gastronomy Student Association

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Whether this is your very first semester or you’re finishing up your thesis, the Gastronomy program is all about maintaining a strong community. One of the best ways to get involved and stay connected is through the Gastronomy Student Association, a group of current students who help put together events and lectures for each semester. This group, coordinated by Emily Olson and Dan Remar, was started this past spring to give students more input into program events, lectures and social gatherings.

The Boston University Gastronomy program is experiencing an explosion of interest, and the growth in student enrollment has reached new highs. Because of this notable increase in students, we hope that this association will allow students to get to know each other, encourage networking, and build a solid community of alumni. We encourage the planning and participation of social and educational events and gatherings, and are planning some notable get togethers for this semester.

The first meeting for the 2011-2012 school year was held in late September, and meeting notes are available in PDF form below for your convenience. Anyone who is interested in contributing program ideas or suggestions, please contact Emily Olson (emilyolson80@gmail.com) or Dan Remar (danremar@gmail.com).

Gastronomy Student Association Minutes – 9.28.11

Practicing Gastronomy with Leigh Belanger

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Practicing Gastronomy is a series of informal discussions with professionals from all corners of the food and drink world. Here’s a preview of our next guest.

The intangible benefits of Leigh Belanger’s work for Chefs Collaborative aren’t too shabby. She gets to work for something she believes in, striving to expand the sustainable food landscape by sharing knowledge and forging relationships among culinary professionals. But she admits she doesn’t mind the occasions on which they get to celebrate their efforts. Working with chefs, she says, means good eating.

Chefs Collaborative is a Boston-based nonprofit network that connects chefs around issues of food sustainability. Leigh’s been their program director for four years, overseeing and implementing the organization’s educational and community building efforts. Before joining up with Chefs Collaborative, Leigh served, managed, and cooked in restaurants, and also worked as a freelance food writer. She’s kept up the multitasking. She’s close to finishing her MLA in Gastronomy, and she recently submitted her first cookbook manuscript. She runs a holiday cookie business, too.

Leigh will be the next participant in our Practicing Gastronomy discussion series. Please join us for a conversation about her work with a food-focused nonprofit, plus her array of other culinary pursuits.

EVENT INFORMATION:
Wednesday, May 4
808 Commonwealth Avenue
Room 122
4:45 – 5:45pm

Practicing Gastronomy with Alicia Towns Franken

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by Erin Carlman Weber

On March 28*, we’re kicking off the Practicing Gastronomy discussions, a series of informal monthly chats with professionals from all corners of the food and drink world. Here’s a preview of our first guest.

Alicia Towns Franken thinks wine should be on every table, and that includes those in the delivery room. The Boston-based sommelier and consultant christened both of her children with a dab of Krug rosé moments after they were born. She brings this same principle of lighthearted pleasure, plus her vast knowledge of all things wine, to her pursuits as an educator through tastings, seminars and charity events around the country.

Alicia Towns Franken

Alicia got her start at Back Bay steakhouse Grill 23, where she was working as a server to finance her neuropsychology studies at Harvard. Her path took a sudden turn down a different road the day she sampled a glass of wine that gave her goose bumps. She asked immediately to be part of their wine program, and eventually she was made wine director. During her tenure as sommelier, Alicia expanded their wine offerings from a two-page menu to a 1,000-bottle list, and earned accolades from Boston Magazine, Les Dames d’Escoffier, and Wine Spectator.

These days, Alicia is a wine consultant and works charity events, participating in seminars, tastings and panel discussions. She’s also an accredited Wine Location Specialist and an ambassador for the Center for Wine Origins, where she works to educate consumers, the media and policy makers about the importance of accuracy in wine labeling. To perform work like hers, Alicia feels it’s vital to be open-minded, with a strong sense of fun and flexibility, and to have a passion for sharing knowledge in an accessible and respectful way.

Alicia will be sharing much more of her wisdom on building a career in wine as our first guest in the Practicing Gastronomy discussion series. Please join us as we sit down with Alicia for an informal chat about her life as a sommelier, consultant and educator in the world of wine, including what it’s like to work a charity event that goes through 100,000 wine glasses.

EVENT INFORMATION:
Practicing Gastronomy with Alicia Towns Franken
Monday, March 28*
808 Commonwealth Avenue
Room 109
4:45 – 5:45pm

*Originally scheduled for March 21. Date revised March 15.